Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1887-04-26
LIBRARIAN SPOFFORD.
PROBABLY THE MOST RAPID READER
INTHlS COUNTRY.

the Meat of q Book-A Time Wasting
Habit-Arrangement of Books in the
Library.
Mr.. Spofford, the librarian Of congress, Is
probably the most rapid reader in this coun'
try. The other day reporter sought some
information of him. simultaneously, within
a space Of five minutes, he conversed with
the reporter, "read" through completely
twelve page New York paper, dictated let
tor to a stenographer and gave directions to
two assistants He commenced all at the
same time and finished them together. A re-
mark, q sentence dictated aside, a direction,
q sentence dictated, remark and so on, ap-
parently without an effort, and all the time
his eyes were running over the paper almost
as fast as he could turn from page to page.
The reporter asked him afterwards how be
did It
-Oh, It comes natural for me 10 give m-
attention to two or three things together that
way. DO it by sort OF intuition without
thinking Of it."
PICKING OUT THE MEAT.
aBut how do you read so rapidlyr
Il acquire the subject matter said Mr..
Spofford II pick out the meat-the pith [
pay no attention to the verbiage scarcei1
see the words and never note the form OF SCI
fences have learned, by long practice and
having a natural tendency for it, to get tha
Information without the rhetoric. In tn
way the thought is got at a glance Il is Dot
the words you want. When your time is al
too short for your work you can't afford ID
waste Il on words In reading there is 50
much that Is Of no use to you--a worthless lot
Of verbiage BY practice you can avoid
this Nearly ali books or papers are taken ID
mostly with rhetoric, and have the fact and
substance stored away In very small spec,
II you only know how TO find it. l seldom
spend more than half an hour and nev"r
more than an hour and half in reading
reconnaissance Of the largest volume. For H.
stance, take this" and he took volUr,a
from the shelf. mo" looking at the TIL,
.this is hardly the proper book to illustrate it
with. This is Carlyle; he has TO be read;
every word. He is one Of the few authors
who cannot be read as have described. Yen
must read every word, and well it pays yen
for the time But it is only such rugged
and extraordinary writer that it is necessary
10 read that way. All those thousands Ct
books with smooth, easy running sentence,
they are all alike and you don't want to
waste time on the language-you want to
seize on to the soul and devonr it in an instani.
Like this, now" and he reached another boz
mot CARLYLE, and went down the pages ore
after another, as an expert accountant would
60 down a column of figures "Nothing there
I want, nor there, nor there" Then OCCASION
ally striking something to the point and ge.-
ting the thought in an instant He went over
probably fifteen or twenty pages in this way
In length of time hardly worth reckonin',,
and without even making break in the co,-
verSation-
"Many people" Mr. Spofford went OF,
shave the time wasting habit of pronouncir g
every word in their mind and noticing every
pause and punctuation as they go along a. If
reading aloud. All these words and SCH
fences, with the capitalization and punctua-
tion-the commas, the colons, the semicolonS,
the periods and paragraphs, are only the signs
TO be followed, but not to be recorded in the
mind. Many readers, perhaps most readers,
chuck their heads up with commas and colons
instead of thoughts"
ARRANGEMENT OF THE BOOKS.
ut Is said" suggested the reporter ''thl,
| you know every hook in the librarvf'
I'm general way. l know where to find
every book, its size and general appearance
and its subject matter. | could not tell YOU
the contents Of the books, but merely what
| they are about There are some COCOON
volumes, arranged in forty-four Subdivisions
! .-hfcu arc aseAi,. oui~ii, ido<a. havo ia,
| library arranged according to what | con
| ceIved to be the common sense plan TIT
books are arranged alphabetically by subj {
the fiction only by authors. You are now il
the alcove containing biographies of Englh II
| men. The alcoves are arranged alphabet
| ally by subjects, and the books within ;.r
ranged In their alphabetical order For IN
stance, take Cromwell: all the biographies o.
| Cromwell are together, and next is another
| 20" progressively. Suppose some one wa t
| q certain work on finance I know it Is il
that Above up there. | know what book i i
| BY association, and just where it is En-
that alcove Is oYerfowed, and the books ir,
all piled u, on thu floor and along there il
'front.' Suppose they ask for a book of CON
paratively recent date know it is not d
the shelves, because they were fiile.i long I've
fore its publication So il must be In tia
Die somewhere know the size o. the book
and It's appearance; can recognize il. for I
passed through my hands to get info III
library. For the past twenty years eyr-,
book that hes come into the library has era
through my hands. and remember if II I
general way know It's size and appearance
and about what is in it Any one of then
| you mention Will remember IL and what i
il Ike, 1t is all q working of the mind b,
association
-How about finding quota'ionsT asked III,
reporter.
| well. If a member wants TO use quota
don chat is not In familiar quotations and
is from q poet who has no concorrlan,r--
Byron and Burns for instance, have no con
oordancn-and he wants 10 know the exc
words and where il comes from, be vi,
| probably come to me- he will likely RENE ~
Der in general way what it is-a few vt IN
wurds-or what it is about and the ma; ar
I may he able TO tell by lis sound who its ;u
thor is, and can form Gil idea anyhow Is {.
the period it belongs 10. Then discard al
poems Of an earlier or later period, thCn
discard all authors | knew could not h,v
written it, and then discard again all poem
OF different metre and all upon subject
wherein the quotation could not occur. L
this way harrow my field OF research. IN,
then generally have little difficulty in find
ing what want
1T is the same principle throughout-,iis
card all that You don't want --WashinCto,
Star Interview
oRts